An Æthelmearc History
LessonorWhy Æthelmearc does not have Queen’s
Arms

By Baroness Orianna Fridrikskona
Date: Oct. 2012

A short while ago, I noticed a set of banners hanging
at an event. They were the Arms of Æthelmearc with a
wreath of roses in place of the Laurel wreath. I was
saddened since it meant that a piece of the history of
Æthelmearc had not been passed on to whoever put so much
work into the banners.

When Æthelmearc was in the process of becoming a
Principality, various members of the region to become
Æthelmearc – peers, heralds, officers, etc. – were meeting
on a regular basis to make decisions on such things as the
Laws, Awards and the Heraldry of the Principality. And one
of the topics was whether or not we should have Arms for
the Princess and (eventually) Queen.

Many Kingdoms do. The East Kingdom, our parent Kingdom,
does. So, why don’t we?
Well, there are several reasons. Let’s start with the
historical reason. No Kingdom in period had arms
differentiated for the Queen/Consort. The ruler bore the
arms of the Kingdom. Countries such as England have had
both male and female rulers, and there were no different
arms for them based on their gender. As a side note, what
we do in the SCA doesn’t follow historical precedence
anyway since, quite often, the arms of the ruler of a
kingdom were either the personal arms of the ruler’s
family or were differentiated by elements of such.
Historically, it is pretty much a mess anyway. But the
point is that there is no historic precedence for consort
arms.

It is also now policy of the Society Herald (the Laurel
Sovereign of Arms) that Consort Arms are no longer allowed
to be passed. Certainly, Kingdoms and Queens may use the
kingdom arms differentiated with roses if so desired, but
they are no longer registered at the Society level.

Second, as per our Laws, the Crown speaks with one voice.
They work together, rule together, and have one voice in
matters of State where the Crown makes the decisions. In
fact, when the various awards were being created (another
small history lesson), the discussion of the Courtesy
Order came up. In the East Kingdom, the award for Courtesy
is the Queen’s award to give (and it is called the Queen’s
Order of Courtesy!). When we were discussing the
Æthelmearc courtesy award, our then Prince objected to
making it the purview of the Princess or Queen only – he
said that, after all, he was perfectly capable of
recognizing courtesy too. I could certainly give further
examples – the champions are named and chosen by custom,
not law, which allows the Crown to make their own
decisions on how they wish to choose, and title, their
Champions. There is nothing that dictates which Champions
are specifically the King’s and which the Queen’s except
custom and the Crown.

Third, while it has not happened in Æthelmearc yet, it
could happen someday – who bears the “Queen’s Arms” if we
have a woman win crown in her own right? The assumption
inherent in having a set of arms that are specific to the
Queen is that the King is the true ruler of the Kingdom
and bears the Kingdom Arms. The Queen is simply his
consort. Therefore, would a Queen in her own right bear
the arms of the kingdom and her King the “Queen’s Arms”
(with the wreath of roses??).

The ultimate decision was to not have specific
differentiated arms for the Princess/Queen of Æthelmearc.
When Æthelmearc presented their arms for consideration,
the Principal Herald of the East objected, stating that we
were required to have arms for our Princess. When the
argument was presented to the Laurel Queen of Arms, the
Society Herald, she determined that there was nothing
written that dictated we needed Princess’ arms and
therefore if we didn’t
want them, we didn’t have to have them.

And thus it was that Æthelmearc, by tradition, does not
have arms for her Queens. She bears the arms of the
kingdom as the Crown of Æthelmearc.